Artist's Lady Knights Series Creates Diverse Women Warriors

[Lyvric]

What a fun, random idea! It's neat they did this with girls but you could also put gender as an aspect (or replace one of the five) to help get character ideas. I enjoy the wide variety of expressions: some look level headed, some off their rockers and others like they really shouldn't be fighters.

 

[Weaver]

How do you use the randomizer? It's just 5 animated gifs. When you click on one they still animate...

 

[A-D.]

I really like these!

Maybe not the Egyptian one, as it goes to towards the more conventional more skin less armor but the others are great! The green one reminds me of Melissa McCarthy!

They all look like they have a personality without them saying a word and they actually look like a woman would when going to war, not with tits popping out but clad in armor!

You mean the Aztec one im guessing, the only semi-egyptian one is the 6th picture and thats hardly "more skin".

OT: Nice looks for the pictures, though some look a little wierd to me, like the poses and expressions dont match the armor. At least i would assume a different posture and expression depending on influence and what exactly they are wearing, you know, correlation to the style.

 

[omega 616]

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If I draw a hammer and sickle and proclaim it to be an English symbol of manual laborers, it doesn't make it so ... that picture screams "Egyptian" to me, so Egyptian is what I am calling it. Maybe he needs to rework his randomizer so his Aztec looks Aztec-ian!

 

[Victim of Progress]

I didn't know The Emperor of Mankind had an awkward sister.

 

[Eamar]

I LOVE these. And I'm actually glad they included one more scantily clad character, as it highlights that (most) of us don't want to ban anything outright, just increase diversity. Skimpy clothing is fine, so long as it's consistent within the setting (ie the male equivalents aren't running round in full plate) and not the only thing we ever get to see.

Seriously though, mischievous Russian cat lady ftw. Just awesome.

 

[Lazule]

Meh imo they all look pretty lame and uninteresting to me, this is why I didn't liked the randomize option in Dark Souls or in the Saints Row games. But then again this is my opinion...

Its better to have it than to lack it.

 

[otakon17]

Can we have these lot in a Dynasty Warriors like game now? Please?

 

[A-D.]

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If I draw a hammer and sickle and proclaim it to be an English symbol of manual laborers, it doesn't make it so ... that picture screams "Egyptian" to me, so Egyptian is what I am calling it. Maybe he needs to rework his randomizer so his Aztec looks Aztec-ian!

Just because it looks vaguely egyptian doesnt make it egyptian. Aztecs had a somewhat similar attire, the motifs differed though, which by the way should have clued you in since ancient egypt never worshipped any spider gods. Also the colors are off, purple..green, yeah they dont really make me think "thats totally egyptian".

Also, just for the record, if you call a pan a sword, just because it "screams" sword to you, doesnt make it a sword, nor does it make you any more correct as long as you call that pan a sword when it isnt.

 

[Bombiz]

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If I draw a hammer and sickle and proclaim it to be an English symbol of manual laborers, it doesn't make it so ... that picture screams "Egyptian" to me, so Egyptian is what I am calling it. Maybe he needs to rework his randomizer so his Aztec looks Aztec-ian!

Except it does look "Aztec-ian". in fact how the hell do you get Egyptian? the only thing that looks kinda Egyptian is the color gold and even then a lot of old civilizations used gold for armor. I mean theirs nothing wrong with mistaken it for Egyptian but when you actively ignore the fact after you've been corrected then you?re just being willfully ignorant.
Also Aztec warriors and god weren't exactly known for wearing armor.

 

[omega 616]

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If I draw a hammer and sickle and proclaim it to be an English symbol of manual laborers, it doesn't make it so ... that picture screams "Egyptian" to me, so Egyptian is what I am calling it. Maybe he needs to rework his randomizer so his Aztec looks Aztec-ian!

Just because it looks vaguely egyptian doesnt make it egyptian. Aztecs had a somewhat similar attire, the motifs differed though, which by the way should have clued you in since ancient egypt never worshipped any spider gods. Also the colors are off, purple..green, yeah they dont really make me think "thats totally egyptian".

Also, just for the record, if you call a pan a sword, just because it "screams" sword to you, doesnt make it a sword, nor does it make you any more correct as long as you call that pan a sword when it isnt.

You look at it and think "oh, that's clearly Aztec" and great for you but I look at it and think "oh, that Egyptian" and that's ok to.

Just look at what your actually doing, arguing about whether a cartoony styled picture looks Aztec or Egyptian with a guy you will never meet ... is it really worth it?

 

[sweetylnumb]

Can't we have some decent characters that are just people and not symbols of equality?

They are only symbols if you will them to be.

Seriously though, I thought these were just cultural representation of warrior women concepts or something. I feel kinda icky getting mixed into

Like there's the roman woman, the oriental woman, the russian woman, the egyption woman, and then some random ones based on fantasy nations, like the rabbit place and the dwarf place because I guess they would be in a fantasy setting.

I like the third one though. This trope has that "graceful anger" vibe coming from it. Also magic and snakes!

It's not that I look at them and go "Oooh! Those damn feminist characters!", if anything, I want deeper characters that go beyond eyecandy; Like I said, I like these concepts.

What makes me wonder is why it has to be pointed out that they're not skimpy or that they're not wearing realistic armor, when one of the characters is carrying a hammer with the head the size of the character, with a tiger on top of it.

It's like you said, they're only symbols if we make them out to be so, but that goes the other way around. Just because femshep has a "boob armor" chestplate, it doesn't have to be a sexual symbol, unless you make it out to be so.

Hey try being a female who sees nothing but boobage and terribly twisted and unrealistic poses. Damn right the first thing we notice is actual armor. Even the Aztec one appears to have actual personality and is interesting rather than just sexy and pretty. In fact those long limbs are slightly unsettling.

 

[sweetylnumb]

Did anyone notice that this diversity is based on stereotypes? Some of which are quite rude?

How so? which ones and why? I mean the aztec one is tall with beetles which i suppose might offend an aztec but where are they to get offended?

 

[sweetylnumb]

I didn't know The Emperor of Mankind had an awkward sister.

It looks like a sister of battle who just took her helmat off for the first time xD

 

[Bombiz]

snip

snip

If I draw a hammer and sickle and proclaim it to be an English symbol of manual laborers, it doesn't make it so ... that picture screams "Egyptian" to me, so Egyptian is what I am calling it. Maybe he needs to rework his randomizer so his Aztec looks Aztec-ian!

Just because it looks vaguely egyptian doesnt make it egyptian. Aztecs had a somewhat similar attire, the motifs differed though, which by the way should have clued you in since ancient egypt never worshipped any spider gods. Also the colors are off, purple..green, yeah they dont really make me think "thats totally egyptian".

Also, just for the record, if you call a pan a sword, just because it "screams" sword to you, doesnt make it a sword, nor does it make you any more correct as long as you call that pan a sword when it isnt.

You look at it and think "oh, that's clearly Aztec" and great for you but I look at it and think "oh, that Egyptian" and that's ok to.

Just look at what your actually doing, arguing about whether a cartoony styled picture looks Aztec or Egyptian with a guy you will never meet ... is it really worth it?

maybe you should of led with this instead of arguing.

 

[Lilani]

It's nice that people are thinking outside of the box, but if the intention of this article is to prove that "Those sexualised stereotypes are completely unnecessary, look, I pulled half a dozen superior examples out if my ass in five minutes flat!" then I think there's a bit of self-deception going on. Calling this a victory for Feminism In Games would certainly be a bit premature.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor was it built by completing one huge building. It was built by finishing a countless number of little buildings. And this is one of those buildings--an example of female characters designed with a CHARACTER in mind, without paying any mind to making them any "prettier" than their character or background would require. These could have easily been male characters, and that's the point. As a female and an artist even I'm very tempted to make a female character "pretty" when I design them.

They may not be perfect from a design perspective, but as a creative exercise in dumping the baggage we don't even realize we carry when it comes to designing female characters it is very insightful.

 

[sweetylnumb]

Hey try being a female who sees nothing but boobage and terribly twisted and unrealistic poses. Damn right the first thing we notice is actual armor. Even the Aztec one appears to have actual personality and is interesting rather than just sexy and pretty. In fact those long limbs are slightly unsettling.

First off, not every woman feels the way you do, some see past the obvious exaggerated "traits" and just take it for what it is.

As for me, I don't need to have a character be realistic in order to see personality or character, I don't know why you do.

Notice i said "a female" rather than "female" in my initial comment, smart guy (assuming you are in-fact a guy), thus im not sure what your getting at with your first comment.

I'm not saying a women with massive tits or sexualized attire can't have personality. Even if it doesn't please me, Bayonetta sure has a personality. All im saying is that i (one female) see a whole lot of shallow charecters with nothing but sex appeal, or good charecters overshadowed by thier massive boobage which makes them SEEM shallow and ridiculous.

I mean, imagine if a well rounded male character randomly had a MASSIVE crotch that wiggled around when he moved. Could you really take him seriously?

and i don't need them ALL to be realistic and such to be interesting. But some unconventionally attractive female characters would just be nice, y'know? and i think these pictures are great examples of that. No big ridiculous boobs, no strenous poses. Its just a nice change from the barrage of sexualised media us females are used to (whatever they think about it).

 

[Batou667]

Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor was it built by completing one huge building. It was built by finishing a countless number of little buildings. And this is one of those buildings--an example of female characters designed with a CHARACTER in mind, without paying any mind to making them any "prettier" than their character or background would require. These could have easily been male characters, and that's the point. As a female and an artist even I'm very tempted to make a female character "pretty" when I design them.

They may not be perfect from a design perspective, but as a creative exercise in dumping the baggage we don't even realize we carry when it comes to designing female characters it is very insightful.

Rome also wasn't built by throwing all the building materials in a big heap and hoping for the best.

They're cute enough drawings and I'll bet the artist had fun doing them. Random idea generators can be a useful tool in getting people to think outside of the box and get ideas going. But, I don't think this has much value if, as the article suggests, the goal is to challenge stereotyped depictions of females in games. Characters need to fit into the game setting, and these characters really don't seem to fit into any setting at all - well, maybe a comedy fantasy setting, but that's aiming for very low-hanging fruit indeed. If the artist could give some examples of how innovative female characters could be generated for use in a more serious sci-fi or modern setting I'd be more impressed.